New Essay on Michel Houellebecq in Front Porch Republic

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I have a new essay in Front Porch Republic occasioned by Michel Houellebecq’s Interventions: 2020, a collection of his previously published articles and interviews:

[T]he thoughts provoked by the essays strike me as simple, brutal, and convincing: The developed world fetishizes individual autonomy. This fetish relies on and reinforces a world-structure that one can only call mechanical. The hardening of this structure prevents escape, as does its spread to every inch of the earth. A vicious cycle swells both the separation between people and the mechanization of society, as two limbs of a poisonous tree. Loyalty, conceived as domination, decreases. Disloyalty, conceived as freedom, increases. This manipulable world comes to seem loveless, even hostile. Usefulness engenders meaninglessness.

Read the rest here.